Only four years after fielding the youngest team in a final, there are myriad reasons why England have arrived in France in crisis
George Ford described possession as like having “a timebomb”, so unappealing had England’s tactics become.“Saracens had ruled the hegemonic state of English rugby. They controlled everything,” Jones wrote in Leadership, the second book published during his tenure, released in late 2021.
Around that time George Ford described possession as like having “a timebomb”, so unappealing had England’s tactics become. Still, Jones was fiercely loyal to his Saracens players but since the World Cup final you could count the number of genuinely emphatic performances by Farrell, George, either of the Vunipolas, Itoje or Elliot Daly on one hand.The impact of the pandemic was, by definition, felt across the globe.
Compounding matters for the clubs, the professional game agreement with the RFU contained a clause that became active in the summer of 2020 and stated that central funding would be directly linked to the union’s revenues, which are themselves wholly reliant on selling out Twickenham. The government stepped in with a £135m bailout but still, three clubs have since gone to the wall: Worcester, Wasps and London Irish.
Reducing the salary cap to £5m put the squeeze on clubs. Bumper wages commanded by England players who miss large parts of the season –– became less justifiable. Those salaries had been inflated by Saracens’ misdemeanours and clubs no longer view it beneficial to house multiple England stars. That Anthony Watson has spent the summer on an RFU training contract because he could not secure a club speaks volumes.
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